Six Senses Laamu Maldives

One of The Maldives more remote properties, Six Senses Laamu requires a bit of extra effort to reach. Yet as one of the island nation’s very finest hotels, it’s absolutely worth it – fabulously expensive, but also generally fabulous, this is the epitome of barefoot luxury.

Location

Like many high-end properties in The Maldives, Six Senses Laamu dominates its own island within an atoll. It takes an hour-long flight and speed-boat transfer south from the international airport to get there but the reward is vibrant coral reefs, schools of manta rays and profound darkness in the evenings.Address: Olhuveli Island, Laamu Atoll, Maldives.

Style & character

Six Senses Laamu via TravelPlusStyle.com

Six Senses Laamu achieves a neat trick of seeming organic and sustainable while offering the utmost decadence. Woodwork features heavily, especially with the stilted ocean villas which stretch out from the island into the Indian Ocean. Guests are requested to stay barefoot the entire time they are in the resort – unless they’re wearing flippers for snorkelling – and get around on personalised bikes which are provided to each villa. If you’re the sort of person who believes that dinner can only be enjoyed when adhering to a strict dress code, this probably isn’t the place for you.

Service & facilities

There’s something miraculous about being able to create a resort as perfect as this in a place with no natural water supply and disconnected from the mainland. The spa is first rate and the snorkelling right off the villas is world class. For a real treat, it’s possible to take a picnic lunch on a nearby deserted island which, for several hours, you’ll have all to yourself. Back at the main resort, each villa is assigned a ‘guest experience maker’ – or butler, as they’re more commonly known.

Bar

Fitness centre

Laundry

Pool

Restaurant

Room service

Sauna

Spa

Wi-Fi

Six Senses Laamu via Travel for Senses

Rooms

Opt for an Ocean Water Villa, where guests can jump off a jetty into the psychedelic reef below, or to stay put on a hammock just above the turquoise waters. All room options are spacious and make the most of natural materials: wood, hessian, leather, linen and thatch. Showers are outdoors (the water doesn’t drain into the sea) but clever design allows for the utmost privacy.

Food & drink

The resort is home to six bars and restaurants. Vegetables and herbs are grown on-site where possible and, if you don’t mind munching on fish you may well have seen earlier in the day around the reef, the seafood is first rate. The Chill Bar is the best spot to take in the epic sunsets, Leaf offers the finest dining options, and Longitude – a great spot for catching a glimpse of dolphins – serves sprawling breakfasts. Perhaps best of all, there’s a bottomless ice-cream stand with more than 40 flavours on offer.